Heroic Rescuers Save Drowning Cow From Hurricane Flood Waters

Skylands Animal Sanctuary and Rescue has had a very busy few days searching and rescuing animals stranded by Hurricane Florence. Among them a cow struggling to stay afloat in the floodwaters.

Mike Stura, founder of the sanctuary, and some friends were out looking for animals to rescue when they were alerted about a cow at a submerged barn.

The New Jersey-based farm animal rescue shared a series of heartwarming videos of the cow’s rescue.

They found the cow outside of a barn almost completely covered by water.

With no higher ground to get to, the cow was fighting to keep her head above water.

The group of rescuers steer their boat closer to the cow in order to lasso her.

They manage to get a rope around her and towed her towards shelter.

Skylands Animal Sanctuary and Rescue

Getting her out of the water, however, proved a challenge as she had exhausted herself from swimming.

“She would cry and I’d lift her, and she would get her rear end up, but she just couldn’t totally stand,” Stura told the Dodo. “We got some straps beneath her and some halters on her face … and there was about eight of us, lifting and pulling on her, and we just kind of heaved her up into the trailer.”

Once they had her on dry land they checked her over. They used rope halters so they could vet her without worrying she would injure herself or them.

“She’s a beef cattle — they don’t get handled by people, so she probably has had very limited interactions with people, and probably what she did have was not really positive — it was probably people taking her family and friends away, so she was understandably a nervous wreck,” he said. But after a bit of time to rest, she’s calming down.

Skylands Animal Sanctuary and Rescue

The farmer who owned the property told Stura if he managed to rescue any cows he could keep them. So the cow is now in the Sanctuary’s care and Stura is hoping to introduce her to Babe – another cow of the same breed he rescued last year from Hurricane Harvey last year.